Remote desktop to ubuntu

I have a VPS server running Ubuntu OS and also have shell access to my server. I wonder is there any way to connect to Ubuntu desktop and see its UI from windows using remote desktop tools such as TeamViewer or what ever apps?

Is that possible or I have to deal with my server using just command line?

Does your VPS server even run an X environment? It's pretty common for webservers not to even have a GUI installed.

If it has one, putty and a local X server can be used to access the whole thing. But honestly: On a web server you usually don't want that. If I were you, I'd rather get accustomed with the command line and the usual automation and administration tools like plesk & co.

I use vnc through a ssh tunnel. I have to have a gui on my remote web servers, they sit behind cheap routers that have no command-line interface so a web browser is needed to make any changes to the router. There are a few other things I find easier to do with a gui available to me on the server.

This setup also allows me to close the web control panel off from the outside world. I run the browser on the server to get to my ispconfig3 control panel on the server.

Last edited by Doug G; July 31st, 2011 at 01:35 PM.

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Doug G
======I've never been able to appreciate the sublime arrogance of folks who feel they were put on earth just to save other folks from themselves .." - Donald Hamilton

This isn't meant as a criticism of your setup, but more as some honest questions out of curiosity:

Why would you need the web browser on the server for that? Using a SSH tunnel, port 80 of your router could easily be tunneled so that your client's browser can access it. The same could be done for your control panel.

And even if that wasn't the case, you wouldn't need a whole GUI on the server for that. Xauth, X forwarding for the SSH session and a browser on your server should suffice entirely.

Personal preference mostly. Plus I have some internal only web apps that are only available from localhost. I use an old php online bookmarks app and many of it's links fail when there is a port in the url, and since I have something listening on port 80 on most of my workstations, I can't easily just forward port 80, I have to specify some alternate port. Running a browser on the server solves that problem for me too.

The servers in question are my servers running my sites, if I were in the hosting business I'd probably do it differently.

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Doug G
======I've never been able to appreciate the sublime arrogance of folks who feel they were put on earth just to save other folks from themselves .." - Donald Hamilton